A potentially scary situation at a residential treatment facility in St. Helens turned out to be a non-event on the afternoon of Aug. 13, 2014, said St. Helens Police Chief Terry Moss.

Officers with the St. Helens Police Department responded to the Pathways Residential Treatment facility at 185 N. 4th Street, in St. Helens to investigate a report of a pipe bomb there.

A Portland media outlet reported that an individual walked into the treatment facility run by Columbia Community Mental Health and placed an object on the counter, saying something like “Look what I found.”

Personnel at Pathways residential treatment center evacuated residents following that discovery and waited for the Oregon State Police bomb squad unit to arrive from Salem. When the bomb squad arrived, they determined that the device was a large and unexploded illegal firework. Authorities cleared the scene just before 4:30 p.m.

“No arrests were made and the St. Helens Police Department will take no further action,” Moss said.Moss told the Columbia County Buzz Examiner that he was not at the scene during this incident, but kept in touch with dispatchers at the Columbia 9-1-1 Communications District in order to stay on top of things.

Pathways Residential Treatment Center is one of several treatment centers in St. Helens that are operated by Columbia Community Mental Health. According to the agency’s web site, Pathways offers short term alcohol and drug treatment programs that range in time from 21 to 45 days. An individual’s length of stay depends on several factors, including the severity of the addiction, resources that are available to the individual and the specific substance that the individual has used.

Share this article

April Bamburg is a freelance writer in Oregon. For the past seven years, she has written about events, issues and life in small towns for newspapers in St. Helens and Newport. Contact April at abamburg82@gmail.com.